<p>A confident but soft-spoken, Maninder Singh Dhir is the Aam Aadmi Party nominee for the Speaker’s post. On Friday he is to face an election on the floor of the House.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“We can’t comment on that. The situation is politically fluid,” said his associate Anil Goswami on his chances of becoming the Speaker. They were standing outside the Assembly waiting for a car.<br /><br />“After swearing in, I felt good. I felt so good… coming to the Assembly, meeting so many people,” Dhir said.<br /><br />He is an AAP legislator from Jangpura who won by less than 2,000 votes. <br />“It was a ‘Congress Raj’ for the last 25 years. For last 15 years, Congress’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah was the MLA,” he said, implying why his victory was significant.<br /><br />Jangpura is a cluster of unauthorised colonies with a sizable Muslim-migrant population, Gujjars are traditional landlords. <br /><br />“We never targeted any specific community,” he said, denying that he ever tried to target the traditional Congress vote bank. “We went to the voters like an ‘aam aadmi’.” <br /><br />This 61-year-old, two-time presidential award winner had quit civil defence service in 2005 to become full-time social worker. <br /><br />“If one has will power, one can do a lot of things in unauthorised colonies,” he said. However, he didn’t identify one social or infrastructural issue as the single biggest problem in his constituency .<br /><br />“You get to know about problems when you start working,” Dhir said, pointing out that he organises ‘mohalla sabhas’ (public meetings) in his constituency. <br /><br />Party philosophy<br /><br />“When problems would come up, we would address it,” he added and stressed on his party’s philosophy of ‘democracy every day’.<br /><br /> He said his interest in leadership roles has been since college days. <br /><br />“I became cultural secretary, then secretary. When I joined services, I became the union secretary, and then I became secretary of officers’ association,” Dhir said. <br />Dhir enjoys his daily meal of dal-roti. <br /><br />No holiday trip<br /><br />After his son’s death in 2008, he said that he never went on a holiday trip. And, he said, his only preoccupation became social work. <br /><br />“It was not difficult to contest election,” he said, explaining that experience in social service helped. <br /><br />He describes Chief Minister and AAP party chief Arvind Kejriwal as ‘innocent and nice’. <br />“We are like family members. When two honest people meet, you always feel great,” he said.<br /><br />Dhir has previously worked with BJP and Akali Dal. <br /><br />He said, “But I found only AAP honest.” He was also part of the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption. <br /></p>
<p>A confident but soft-spoken, Maninder Singh Dhir is the Aam Aadmi Party nominee for the Speaker’s post. On Friday he is to face an election on the floor of the House.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“We can’t comment on that. The situation is politically fluid,” said his associate Anil Goswami on his chances of becoming the Speaker. They were standing outside the Assembly waiting for a car.<br /><br />“After swearing in, I felt good. I felt so good… coming to the Assembly, meeting so many people,” Dhir said.<br /><br />He is an AAP legislator from Jangpura who won by less than 2,000 votes. <br />“It was a ‘Congress Raj’ for the last 25 years. For last 15 years, Congress’s Tarvinder Singh Marwah was the MLA,” he said, implying why his victory was significant.<br /><br />Jangpura is a cluster of unauthorised colonies with a sizable Muslim-migrant population, Gujjars are traditional landlords. <br /><br />“We never targeted any specific community,” he said, denying that he ever tried to target the traditional Congress vote bank. “We went to the voters like an ‘aam aadmi’.” <br /><br />This 61-year-old, two-time presidential award winner had quit civil defence service in 2005 to become full-time social worker. <br /><br />“If one has will power, one can do a lot of things in unauthorised colonies,” he said. However, he didn’t identify one social or infrastructural issue as the single biggest problem in his constituency .<br /><br />“You get to know about problems when you start working,” Dhir said, pointing out that he organises ‘mohalla sabhas’ (public meetings) in his constituency. <br /><br />Party philosophy<br /><br />“When problems would come up, we would address it,” he added and stressed on his party’s philosophy of ‘democracy every day’.<br /><br /> He said his interest in leadership roles has been since college days. <br /><br />“I became cultural secretary, then secretary. When I joined services, I became the union secretary, and then I became secretary of officers’ association,” Dhir said. <br />Dhir enjoys his daily meal of dal-roti. <br /><br />No holiday trip<br /><br />After his son’s death in 2008, he said that he never went on a holiday trip. And, he said, his only preoccupation became social work. <br /><br />“It was not difficult to contest election,” he said, explaining that experience in social service helped. <br /><br />He describes Chief Minister and AAP party chief Arvind Kejriwal as ‘innocent and nice’. <br />“We are like family members. When two honest people meet, you always feel great,” he said.<br /><br />Dhir has previously worked with BJP and Akali Dal. <br /><br />He said, “But I found only AAP honest.” He was also part of the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption. <br /></p>
